“Homesteading” is a term derived from The Homesteading Act of 1862, which provided free land for farming in order to promote settlement in the Great West. These days, homesteading is more about adopting a self-sufficient mindset and way of life and reducing your reliance on outside help; it’s about actually learning how to grow food, preserve food, reduce waste, use less energy, and raise animals like bees and chickens.
Although the goal is to live as much off the land as possible, homestead gardens come in a variety of sizes. But we wouldn’t advise attempting one of these bigger garden designs if you’ve never gardened before. It’s advisable to start small, educate yourself on gardening, and allow for future growth.
The majority of vegetables in a homestead garden are planted in conventional in-ground rows, despite the growing popularity of raised beds. Furthermore, a lot of the vegetables cultivated in a farmhouse garden are high-yield crops that store well, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, and beets.
To elaborate, an area can be made twice as productive by having a specific space or greenhouse for growing seedlings. This allows follow-on crops to be prepared for planting into regions after the initial crop is harvested.
How should I start? Always Begin with a Great Design:
Creating a new garden or even remodeling an existing one requires careful planning and design. You will soon have a homestead garden that is worthy of showing off if you keep your focus on the vibe you want your garden to have and adhere to the advice below.
Customize your Garden
Make a list of everything you would like to see in your homestead garden and customize your design with that in mind. Include in your plan a list of the things you and your family enjoy eating the most, your favorite flowers, and even your favorite color. When the time comes to put everything together, doing this will help you choose what elements are essential to have and assist you in making a shopping list.
Express your Design Style
You can find design ideas online, or you can check out my Pinterest boards for a lot of them. If you like a wild and free style, then design for that, but don’t forget these important rules:
1. Put the largest things, like fruit trees, in the back.
2. low plants along the edges, like strawberry or daylily, in front
3. Plants that are easy for people to walk on, like thyme and sedums, along the sides or paths
After that, have fun! Plan winding roads that lead to secret gems like an apple tree or rhubarb patch.
Make woven willow structures for your yard that can hold plants and look good at the same time. Remember that this is your place, so there are no wrong answers.
If you like a more orderly look, look at potager gardens in France for ideas.
Plants that keep their shape will help you keep paths and places clear. To add edibles to your formal farm garden, think about switching out traditional plant species for ones that can be eaten. For example, instead of boxwood, try a Make a blueberry bush.
If you want to line your walks with lettuce, choose color-blocked rows of head lettuce. You will have better luck guessing the end size and shape of plants if you stick to ones that keep their shape and color. This will make your homestead garden look more formal.
Keep it close to your house and simple to get to.
Keep your garden close to the places you use the most. Ignoring your garden will make it die faster than anything else. Put your yard close to your house, somewhere sunny, and easy to get to.
Make sure your homestead garden has good paths and entry points as well. I like my walks to be about 3 feet wide, and I always line them with grass, mulch, or gravel to make them stand out from the planting beds.
Design in Public Areas
People who live on farms are proud of their homes and live where they work. That’s why it’s a good idea to include some things that bring people together in your lovely farm garden. A place to relax with a book or a friend over tea.
When, sun exposure, and how to connect with guests are some things to think about.
The size of the place will depend on how you use it. Plan ahead if you want it to be big enough for the whole family. When planning a gathering area in your homestead garden, you should think about how big it should be so that everyone has a place to sit and eat. A cup of tea with a friend? That’s what your space is for. or just big enough for two or three lounge chairs?
Think about how to plan for both sun and shade. Want a place to get out of the sun and cool off or lie in the shade and drink herbal iced tea? To get a truly unique garden, plan it around your wants and way of life.
Add things that will appeal to the senses and get people to connect with the garden. Lavender, sweet pea, evening scented stock, and other flowers all smell great. Visual interest can be found in the garden through wind chimes, birdbaths, and garden art. All of these things improve the experience of the garden and make people want to come back. In your farm garden, think of ways you can make people feel good.
Make a Beautiful Garden with Integration
Integration is the act of mixing plant species that are usually kept separate. You can get more crops in the same amount of room by stacking them. Nasturtium and pumpkin are two secondary crops that can be allowed to spread out across a home orchard. This makes use of the lower growth area, attracts bees, and provides shade to keep the orchard floor moist. Integration can be very useful and also very beautiful.
In a homestead garden, vegetables and herbs grow together under fruit trees, and flowers and medical herbs grow together and are picked for use in the home.
An interconnected garden is very productive and works like an ecosystem in the wild. You may not have done much gardening in this way before, but believe me, it’s not only useful but also beautiful. Just make sure to include these 4 things:
- Culinary Herbs
- Medicinal Herbs
- Annual Vegetables
- Perennial Crops
1. Culinary Herbs
If you intend to garden using organic methods, you must include culinary herbs in your homestead garden. Culinary herbs are excellent partners for your other plants, attracting pollinators and confusing pests.
Culinary herbs can add up rapidly to your shopping expenditure if you cook frequently, which is absurd considering they are so simple to grow. Many culinary herbs are perennial and can be harvested year after year, but some are annuals and must be reseeded every year.
2. Medicinal Herbs
One of the best ways to help yourself and your garden is to incorporate medicinal herbs into your homestead garden. Medicinal herbs can be grown in the garden and utilized as organic pesticides for healthy plants, plant mulch for good soil, and, if you have any, as feed crops for your cattle and hens.
The medical establishment is starting to recognize herbal medicine’s efficacy and consider it as a viable treatment option for mild ailments, replacing prescription drugs. The good news is that homesteaders, whether they live in an urban or rural area, are resilient individuals who seldom give in to little inconveniences. If they have a stomachache, they will go to the homestead garden, make a pot of tea with mint and fennel, and return to work instead of taking the day off.
In general, medicinal herbs like dill, mint, and chamomile are safe to eat. However, before using any herb as a cure for any illness, you should see your doctor and learn as much as you can about its specific uses and causes. By doing this, you can help ensure that there are no unexpected or harmful side effects. Also, if you are pregnant or nursing, always see your doctor before taking any herbs. As usual, safety comes first!
Although medicinal herbs can take on many different shapes, they are frequently blooming plants that are both attractive and beneficial. Beautiful and definitely worth including in any medicinal homestead garden are the structural silver beauty of a mature lavender plant, the color explosion of bee balm flowers, or the mob of yellow and orange blooms that accompany calendula plants. Grow your own “Farmacy” and incorporate medicinals into your homestead garden.
Medicinal herbs for your homestead garden should include:
3. Annual Vegetables
Growing your own food is rewarding and healthy and as such annual vegetables are essential for any homestead. All too often we segregate our vegetable garden, casting it off to the back yard like an afterthought, just another way to ‘deal’ with the unsightly corner of the yard.
I feel our food deserves more respect than that, instead, our veggies should hold a place of honour in our yards; the brightest spot close to our social spaces and our kitchens; it’s the least we can do for these darling little plants that live to feed us.
Grow your veggies among your herbs and medicinals to create a self-supporting ecosystem. Peas and beans may be trained to climb fruit trees, self-seeding salad greens like lettuce and ruby mustard perform well to fill in gaps and outcompete weeds, and nasturtium blossoms can meander among squash plants to encourage pollination.
What to plant in your homestead garden this year: annual vegetables
4. Perennial Crops
Make sure your integrated homestead garden has perennial food crops. Once planted, perennials require very little care on your part and can continue to thrive for many years.
I recently consulted on a historical homestead that was established in 1910, where I found perennial crops that are still going strong today, this included 2 massive walnut trees, a diverse fruit orchard that was way older than I am, and asparagus plants that had self-seeded along the length of the driveway. Both the new owners and I were amazed at the resilience of these perennial food crops.
It is evident that homesteaders understand the importance of perennial crops—species that you sow once and will grow again every year.
There’s nothing better than going outside to gather a bushel of fresh rhubarb and a bowl of fresh strawberries from your own garden, then heading directly inside to bake a freshly baked pie that embodies all the flavors of spring.
Adding perennials to your homestead garden might be a smart and tasty choice because maintaining an annual vegetable garden can be labor-intensive and requires starting over every year.
Modify your design as needed
Adaptation is all about managing the ecosystem of your garden as a whole, which is intricate and dynamic. Seasons and ebbs and flows in productivity are common in domestic gardens. In order to keep your garden healthy and attractive, engage with it every day to spot changes, pick your vegetables frequently, and adjust your strategy as the seasons change.
Take Daily Notes in Your Garden
Take frequent tours of your garden to learn when it needs your attention, notice changes in the soil, and keep an eye out for any potential pest outbreaks or plant illnesses. And keep in mind that you can unwind while observing the interactions between components, such as those between the ladybug and the aphid, by including your social areas into your garden. Go here to find out more about Garden Maintenance.
Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Crops Frequently
crop often—not just in the fall—because homestead gardens are varied and always evolving. Take advantage of your crop while it’s at its best. Harvest as the seasons change in the homestead garden: cut off abundant blooms to showcase inside your house, gather sun-ripened tomatoes during the day, and store dried seed pods for planting again the following spring.
Planting Successions in Your Homestead Garden
Replant as you harvest. When the seasons change and the weather gets too hot for peas, bush beans can be used in place of spring peas. Since cilantro bolts easily, it should be sown every two weeks to guarantee a plentiful harvest throughout the growing season.
Modify your Homestead Gardening Scheme
Even though you will invest a lot of time in developing your homestead garden, remember that a garden is an ecosystem that is constantly evolving. In the long term, as perennials grow in and trees provide shade, you will need to modify your plan every year. To prevent disease, rotate your vegetable crops, split huge perennials, and switch up your annual plants for fresh hues and kinds. It’s inevitable that plants will eventually die; instead, replace them with something fresh and intriguing that will keep you excited about your garden year after year. Go here to find out more about Garden Maintenance.
A well-adapted garden changes with the seasons and the years and is always in bloom. An appropriately adapted homestead garden gets easier to maintain as trees grow and offer shade, perennials flourish and produce more, annual crops self-seed and fill up empty spaces, and flowers and herbs outcompete weeds. An abundant and fruitful ecosystem, the adapted garden changes over time to maintain itself.
Thus, keep in mind that creating a beautiful homestead garden requires careful planning, incorporating species for a profitable and healthy garden, and being prepared to modify your plan as your garden changes. You too can have a fantastic homestead garden for many years to come if you follow these guidelines.
Okay, let’s do this! Here are some fantastic resources to get you started, so let’s get started this weekend creating your dream homestead garden.
How Can the “Eating Season” Be Extended?
In my area, the growing season lasts approximately 150 days without a frost, from May 10 to October 5.
I do, however, like to eat all year round. What to do?
Two solutions exist for satisfying that “hungry gap”:
Season prolongation
food preservation
The Key To A Workable Season Extension
Even though May 10 is my last frost date, I begin my garden as soon as I receive my seed catalogs in January. Put another way, preparation is the first step in extending a season.
I take my time choosing a crop combination and planting timetable that will optimize my climate, time, and space. I must start a lot of seeds indoors under lights in order to accomplish this.
In late February or early March, I sow under lights the first cold-hardy plants (leeks, onions). In mid-March, cabbage and other brassicas come next. I began growing tomatoes, peppers, and beets in late March.